The preferred embodiment concerns a method, a computer program and a data processing system for processing of a plurality of document processing jobs.
The preferred embodiment in particular concerns data processing systems in which document data are transmitted to printing systems for printout per file as jobs together with a job chaperone file and/or in which printed documents are further processed with what are known as finishing apparatuses in which they are, for example, cut, folded, enveloped, bound or stitched. Finishing apparatuses can thereby also be integrated into printing systems or vice versa.
A document processing system for processing of document data is known from WO 02/093354 A1, in which data processing system document data are acquired from a data server and from there are distributed to various high-capacity printing apparatuses. The printed documents can subsequently by supplied to finishing apparatuses.
From WO 89/06024 A a printing system is known in which various print jobs are buffered in a mass storage and are printed according to predetermined criteria automatically or only after a user intervention. From EP 0 720 086 B a digital printing and copying system is known in which the upcoming stored print jobs are automatically processed or can be manually pushed to the printer. Given the automatic processing various printing criteria can additionally be changed by the operator.
An order distribution system (ODS) that is also designated as a workflow manager is described in the publication “Das Druckerbuch, Technik und Technologien der OPS Hochleistungsdrucker”, Edition 5a, October 2000 (ISBN 3-00-001019-X) in chapter 15. The entire digital printing process, which comprises a printing pre-stage, a high-capacity printer and an end processing, can be controlled with this order distribution system. In the printing pre-stage image and text files from different sources (such as scanners, digital cameras, data media or a computer network) are merged and brought into their final form at a layout station. A printer driver subsequently converts the data generated at various platforms into, for example, PostScript files. These files can then be relayed to a print server for printing. The print server controls the printing process. The final processing (finishing) of the print product comprises, for example, the binding or insertion of divider pages.
The order distribution system is moreover responsible for the central administration of the production variants. The printing service for intranet and Internet users also belongs to this. The order distribution system informs users about approved production variants, accepts print jobs together with job folders, initiates the automatic processing up to the printing. The order distribution system also monitors the correct execution of the selected printing and post-processing options.
Here the order distribution system processes job chaperone files, what are known as job tickets. A job ticket is a file that is created by the user upon generation of the print job, in which file all specifications are contained that are to be executed in the printing process. Conventional job tickets comprise unambiguous instructions that are to be correspondingly implemented.
The printing process is becoming increasingly more comprehensive since ever more apparatuses are integrated into a printing process, whereby the function variety increases. Printing processes are increasingly executed distributed regionally via the Internet and intranet or are associated with a pool of printers that can be regionally distributed. Moreover, apparatuses of different manufacturers must increasingly work together in a process. In order to be equal to these increased requirements, a uniform specification for exchange of data formats was stipulated that is designated as a job definition format (JDF). For this there is a corresponding job messaging format (JMF) that is correspondingly specified. The specification of JDF can be downloaded from the Internet site www.cip4.orq; the specification current at the point in time of the present patent application is JDF specification release 1.2.
A workflow based on JDF is known from DE-A1-103 39 511.
An output management system for print jobs with the trade name Océ Print Exec Pros is known from Océ Technologies B.V., Netherlands, in which output management system it is provided that completion dates or, respectively, times are specified for print jobs with the dispatch of the job. Systems for processing of print jobs are known from EP-B1-720 086 and from US 2004/0218201 A1.
A method and a system for processing of jobs in which a selection from a plurality of processing apparatuses can be made for processing of the jobs is known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,587,861.
The aforementioned publications and documents are herewith incorporated by reference into the present specification.
JDF is an XML-based format in which the instructions for the printing process are arranged in a tree structure. Every node of the tree structure comprises an instruction or a set of instructions. The uppermost node is designated as a root. The end nodes at branches are designated as leaf nodes. Furthermore, the nodes are hierarchically structured, whereby in the tree structure product nodes lie at the tip or in the upper region, process group nodes lie in a middle region and process nodes lie in the lower region.
The distinctiveness of JDF lies in that there can be what are known as intent nodes that contain a very general instruction for the printing process that must be rendered more precisely in order to be able to be executed at an apparatus. The product nodes are in particular also designated as product intent nodes. This more precise rendering, which is also designated as a resolution, is executed by a corresponding controller in the course of the printing process in that one or more further nodes that render the instruction of the intent node more precisely are subordinated to the intent node. This resolution can occur in steps, meaning that a cascade of further nodes are subordinated to the intent node, whereby the exact instructions for the apparatus (in particular the printer) are contained in the last node (the leaf node).
The resolution of the intent instructions into more precise instructions up to the commands contained in the leaf nodes occurs by means of programs that are designed similar to device drivers and that convert general intent instructions into more concrete intent instructions or into concrete commands for a printer or an apparatus. Specifications about resources that are contained in the respective nodes are also taken into account in this conversion. According to the JDF specification, resources are all things that are consumed or produced. They comprise physical objects (such as, for example, paper, ink) or data in the form of files or parameters. A resource has an XML ID with which it is identified in the overall job ticket.
In such methods in which document processing jobs are automatically processed by means of a system that comprises a plurality of networked computers, often the apparatuses that execute the document processing job (such as printer, folding device, punching device and the like) are also automatically determined. This occurs in that specific criteria are predetermined by the print job and an apparatus is selected that corresponds to these criteria. This method has proven itself very well for conventional systems for automatic processing of document processing jobs. However, if document processing jobs according to the JDF format are used that are initially very non-specific and are rendered more precisely in the course of the processing, it has arisen that the selection of the apparatuses is often not optimal. It has in particular arisen that the selection of a specific apparatus according to the applicable specification can lead to the situation that print jobs are buffered for a long time given intensive utilization of the apparatus or are redirected to an apparatus disadvantageously situated for the user.